Yes, indeed! I have a real soft spot for that machine. In the mid-sixties, I was cross-qualified in all the MEL airplanes based in Saigon, with Air America. We had two DO-28s, and one day the chief pilot said "Take those two people to Dalat, and come home in the '28." That was my introduction and checkout. From 12/29/1963 to 8/9/1965 I accumulated 104.5 hours in those two aircraft, along with many thousands in others.

A very docile, fun airplane, moderately good at short fields, but not dazzling performance otherwise. Many years later I heard that both aircraft made it back to the USA, so that could be one of them. Pretty rare bird.

The airplane was scheduled to be sold to farmers from Iowa, as I recall. It had been taken to Iceland as part of the effort to recover warbirds, so it's fitting you got to fly it Doug. It felt very solid to me. I regret I wasn't able to to take up the owner's offer of a flight in it.

From fading memory (it WAS fifty years ago!) we had two facing bench seats in back with 3 each, and 1 in the right front seat, 7 would be nominal. Most of our pax were very small and slim.

No moving in and out of the front, there was only a small window in the massive bulkhead. I think we could open the floor in back for air drops, but I may be confusing that with the Helio Couriers. I know we could do that in the Porters and Turbo-Porters.

The only turbine version was the 'NT' testbed for the development of the Do228. I don't believe there was ever a production turbine version.

I seem to recall there was a PT6 Skyservant model, but I could be wrong.

I'm sure you guys have seen this crazy video of a Skyservant beating the parachutes to the ground? Think it's in Italy somewhere. He literally manages to taxi up to the tower before the first parachutist lands. Reckless flying, but very exciting to watch. Pilot is obviously very comfortable in this aircraft - perhaps a little too comfortable! Insane base turn!

PS. Looks like square turbine exhausts on this model, which makes me think it's some Walter M601 retrofit from a piston machine.

I'm sure you guys have seen this crazy video of a Skyservant beating the parachutes to the ground? Think it's in Italy somewhere. He literally manages to taxi up to the tower before the first parachutist lands. Reckless flying, but very exciting to watch. Pilot is obviously very comfortable in this aircraft - perhaps a little too comfortable! Insane base turn!

How do you say 'hold my beer' in italian ?

Many of my skydiving videos have a H6 with the prop in beta spiraling down in the background. They wanted to get off the runway before the students got anywhere close to the landing zone.

PS. Looks like square turbine exhausts on this model, which makes me think it's some Walter M601 retrofit from a piston machine.

very insane, yes…ugly to watch..

as far as I can remember about a dozen or so have been converted with Walter 601s…by some STC…mostly for skydiving ops..

there also used to be a PT6 version, but that I think still done by Dornier, and they produced about 5 or 6 for some military customer…

and one later actually was fitted with 331s, still on the original type certificate, but that already looked a bit like a 228 proof of concept bird..with nose wheel and the engines on the wings and the fuselage pretty much already a 228…that was before they created that very good 228 wing...

With Air America? The Garrett powered Turbo Porter, wins, hands down, I think. Helio Courier was king, until the TP came along, and simply blew it away. Massive power allowed it to land and stop very short, and takeoff wasn't a lot longer. I never flew it.

The Fairchild C-123 (looks a little bit like a C-130 with two engines), 54,000 pounds, as I recall. It was designed to:

1. Look ugly (it did),2. Fly like a Pig (REALLY excelled at this),3. Make lots of noise (two R-2800s, two jet engines, needed more),4. Insert 15,000 pounds of stuff into very short unimproved jungle/mountain strips, using "Assault Landings." This involved slowing to well below the stalling speed at the "threshold", and ramming full reverse in before "touchdown." Special landing gear, with "Pins" inserted manually, about 2" in diameter, 6" long. Even the atheists would pray that reverse came in together. We lost one where it didn't. One strip in Laos was STEEPLY uphill, very rough, with a sheer dropoff, and no possibility of a go-around. Company policy was for PICs to get about 500 hours in the airplane before taking that strip on, but "needs of the mission" were in force, I guess, because I had only 50 or so. The pay was excellent. I only got about 150 hours before I got transferred to the DC-4 in Taipei. Boring flights, low pay, lots of sitting around, so that was the end of Air America for me. Sorry, must be getting old, I digress too much. But it was half a short field airplane!

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